I'll say this upfront: I do not think this book was marketed very well. I echo the sentiment that this should have been marketed as YA.

I also want to say, if you are interested in this book and are looking forward to a lot of action scenes with a sword wielding badass warrior princess (or rajkumari in this case), you are NOT going to find much of it in this particular book. There are maybe 3 action scenes in its entirety. Most of this book surrounds the political intrigue that comes with a nation divided over how to handle violent colonization efforts.

That said, I now will get into the review proper.

I feel guilty that I did not enjoy this more. On the surface, this book presents the perfect bait to lure me in: a strong premise that promises political intrigue, maybe some action, and most importantly a well-established, set-in-her-morals main character based upon a real historical figure who resisted violent imperialist efforts during her reign. And this book does have all those things, to varying degrees of success in their execution.

Throughout my time reading, I found myself talking through certain aspects of this story with my fiancé and after doing this a few times, I realized that I was more so enjoying talking about the book than actually reading it.

I meant what I said about this book having an interesting premise. A militant-minded spare heir who has to employ diplomatic strategies to aid her people against violent invaders is extremely intriguing. It leaves so much room for character growth, the clashing of opposing perspectives, and nuanced discussion surrounding how to approach the situation at hand. Despite all that potential, none of it was truly reached.

Abbakka as a protagonist should have been one that I felt deeply invested in, but my investment was sorely hindered by the storytelling elements the author chose to use. We are told many things about Abbakka: that she is intelligent, sharp, excellent in combat, etc. but these things do not often line up with what we are shown. She is for the most part fairly intelligent, observant, and keeps a good head on her shoulders during tense moments, even taking advice from those a more egotistical ruler might dismiss.

HOWEVER

There are moments where she, and other well established supposedly intelligent characters, do not think to make very obvious decisions. The biggest example I can think of is towards the middle of the book when they figure out who is behind a massively important murder. This particular person recently came into great financial means after committing this murder and when one of the characters go to confront them about it (off page), no mention is made at all about why they did it. This leaves not just the confronting character but all of Abbakka's circle, including herself, seem incredibly short sighted and stupid. There's no other word for it. Why would they not question why this person did it, why would no one even think to ask? I can only assume that these kinds of decisions are made because the author wants the story to progress in a very specific way.

Now, I am a reader that values consistent characterization and character growth over nearly every other aspect of a story, so this was a massive issue for me in my reading experience with this book. If an author prioritizes leading the audience in a certain direction over consistent believable characterization, especially that of a main character, it just hurts the reader's ability to connect and invest in the character, and it absolutely hinders any sort of character arc the author wants to employ.

Relying on the audience to take you at your word risks isolating a lot of your readers but telling them one thing and showing them contradicting those established character traits will almost guarantee that isolation.

One could make the argument that since this book is written almost exclusively in Abbakka's POV that this is all just her interpretation of events and how she sees these characters rather than the author, but in this case, I would have to disagree. Despite how this story is told, Abbakka's perspective is treated by the narrative as the 'correct' one for lack of a better term partly because hers is the only perspective we get outside of the mystical being she has a childhood connection to.

Speaking of which, the occasional chapters with these shifts in perspective were a breath of fresh air in the beginning of the book but they more often took me out of the current moment in Abbakka's story as I read on further. I think the author was trying to connect the lessons she learns in these chapters as a child to her current situation within the following chapter but that is just me reaching into thin air for an explanation. If that was the intention I do not think the connection was strong enough to justify the interruption, especially since Abbakka should have perhaps been thinking back on lessons she learned not just from this magical being but also from her sister and uncle or anyone else that we were supposed to believe she had a strong connection to. I feel like that would have not only shown us more of the character connections and deepened relationships, but it would have also provided a greater emotional punch.

I think a lot of people were also put off by the lack of action in this story. This is understandable given that this book was marketed as a story about a warrior princess fighting against invaders. I probably would have put this down halfway through if action scenes were higher on my priority list. Fortunately for me, I'm happy to trade cool action scenes for interesting political drama if available and this was delivered. In this area, I genuinely appreciated Abbakka's antagonistic relationship with her husband's advisor, Vishwajeet. It was probably the most interesting relationship in the whole book for me since they both had different advantages and disadvantages in their positions relating to the raja and it was fun seeing them go back and forth and use their respective tools to outdo each other.

That said, I was not happy with one of the reveals in the end and how it related to Vishwajeet. The decision made here flattened not just his character but many others as well. I will hold back on giving any spoilers.

I think the most important takeaway from my experience with this book is that authors need to prioritize organically characterizing their characters over trying to force a story onto a very specific track. Also, marketing teams need to be more honest and upfront with readers regarding what a story is actually about and who the main audience should be. I did not want to go deep into the writing style and how the intended audience appeared to be YA rather than adult because I've seen many people mention that already, but I do echo the sentiment. Marketing teams please be honest about the intended audience.

The elements of this story that worked well were unfortunately not enough to overshadow the ones that fell flat.

If nothing else, this book did spark my interest in Rani Abbakka and I plan to read more about her in the future. If anyone else is interested here is a link to an article briefly covering her: https://indianblog.co.in/who-was-rani-abbakka-chowta/

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery for providing me a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very solid debut that explores abusive familial relationships, generational trauma, and how that trauma affects people in different ways even within the same family.

I love a character focused narrative and this story absolutely delivered on that front. Jude is a protagonist that is very easy to root for, exactly what I expected and hoped to find. What I was not expecting was the depth in the characters of her mother and her two aunts. Nor was I expecting how Jude came to approach their collective familial trauma towards the end of the book.

The writing from a prose standpoint is very well done. Not overly lyrical or flowery but just enough of that aspect to immerse me in the natural Georgian atmosphere that permeates most of the book. Structurally, I did feel as though we spent too much time removed from the aunts' perspectives in the middle third, enough so that once we jump back it's slightly jarring. This is Jude's story first and foremost, of course, but I was very interested in how the two remaining sisters were handling the events of the first third while Jude was trying to heal and discover herself outside of her mother's control. This comes down to my personal preference I suppose with me just wanting more of that part of the story and I am glad that it gets circled back to in the last 20%.

The one drawback, if I had to pick one, was the fact that I don't really understand the purpose of Nemoira's character. From what I gathered, I think that Scholfield was trying to explore how growing up in an abusive or toxic household can lead one to slip into unhealthy relationship patterns no matter how mature in age one might be. I was glad that Jude had found someone she could take comfort in, but I did not find myself as interested in Nemoira as I was with Jude or the women of Jude's family. As a result, I was not nearly as engaged with the middle of the book when it was purely centering on her and Jude's relationship, though this could just speak to how well written the family dynamics were.

Despite these small issues, this is a very dense little book packed with strong characterization, beautiful atmospheric and gut-wrenching writing, and careful respectful exploration of heavy themes.

Definitely worth a recommendation so long as you heed the content warnings at the beginning.

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A respectful, self-aware, and earnest account of a stranger seeking escape and instead finding connection and acceptance.